silly season all year long

Why I do what I do politically & why I plan to continue to do it

I'm trying to remember when I first thought that things were arranged unfairly.  It was very early.  Kindergarten maybe.  That was the first time I remember being ranked.  In retrospect it seems that during those various rankings that occurred in that class I noticed people getting ranks they didn't deserve and not getting ranks they should have.  Unfairness was everywhere.

My initial training was that there was nothing you could do about "the way things were," you had no choice but to go along with it.  The 60s changed that mental stasis.  I ("we") realized (quickly) that change could be imagined, things could be done to promote those imaginations.  Various ways were looked at.

I have come to be a big fan of voting as a way of deciding things.  A lot of us don't want to bother that day, let alone do research to find out, and most of those candidates are mediocre at best, fools, gold diggers, paid hacks, etc.  But any other method of deploying power involves the arbitrary use of force by unaccountable people.  I want to be able to participate in the deployment of power.  Voting, to the extent it is "real," is the alternative to, essentially, gang warfare, in which weapons holders fight until someone dominates.

The ongoing issue is to make voting "real," in the various ways that can be defined.  The votes are really counted, the candidates are for positions that mean something, they are not themselves feckless, people who are eligible to vote are allowed to vote, people actually want to vote, etc.

Beyond that concern with the integrity of the voting process are my positions on "issues."  Because my views are what they are there are no Republicans anywhere that I can support at this time.  35 years ago there were times when I could have strategically supported a particular Republican here or there (Hatfield) but now they don't even speak the same language as me even though they use the same words.

Democrats are not a perfect fit for me either.  Disappointing in many ways.  But 2 things: 1. there is some congruence of belief, 2. there are only 2 parties in this country (despite the fact that getting toward 1/3 of the voters are now registered "independent" which means "no party.")  Maybe all those non-Dem-non-Rep voters should form the "Independent" party.  Anyway, for me there really is a difference between Dems and Reps, even if only at the edges.  The delirious flow of great rivers of money rushes on in the same unfair, sociopathic, oligarchic direction no matter, apparently, who's in charge.

I want to support the electoral process & I want to push the political scene in a certain direction not-the-direction-that-the-Republicans-are pushing.  The Democrats are pushing less in that direction.  I am a strong supporter of the lesser evil.  I work, therefore with the Dems.